Sylvia Becker
Sylvia Becker was born in the Bronx and moved with her family to Brooklyn's Borough Park, a heavily Jewish neighborhood where her public school essentially closed on the Jewish holidays. Her mother's family came from Poland near the German border and her father came to America at age five; he became a contractor of ladies' clothes and suits, with a shop above a kosher chicken market where Sylvia watched the slaughtering. She was the oldest of three children. Her home was traditional but not strictly observant, and by age 14 she was making out her father's payroll. She attended a rapid-advancement junior high, spent a year at Erasmus Hall High School, then completed a year of business school before beginning office work at 17.
Sylvia worked in bookkeeping, typing, and stenography, first at an insurance company in downtown New York, then in the garment industry, and later for a chain of storage garages on the Brooklyn waterfront, where she met her future husband, a partner and manager seven and a half years her senior. They married, lived in Brooklyn, and raised a daughter and a son. In 1947, after her husband sold his business and her brother-in-law sought a drier climate for his asthma, both families moved to Arizona. There her husband went into real estate and passed away in Tucson. The family faced some hard times, but Sylvia raised her children in a warm community, remained close to family, and stayed active in the Girl Scouts, PTA, and a culture group.
After her daughter married, Sylvia took a job at her Arizona synagogue's Hebrew school and eventually worked as an administrative assistant, having served as sisterhood president. Following retirement and stints doing temporary bookkeeping, she moved to Dallas about five years before this interview to be near her children, daughter Maxine and son-in-law Marty, her son, and her grandchildren. Loneliness eventually drew her to the Jewish Community Center's senior department, which she credits as a wonderful experience and where she now helps welcome others, including women intimidated by the word senior. Fiercely independent, she prizes standing on her own two feet and takes pride in her grandchildren, one of whom is putting herself through school in Austin.
She has six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Full Transcript
I'm sitting here with my friend Sylvia Becker and we're going to schmooze a little, talk a little, and go back into the past. Good morning, Sylvia. Good morning, Elia. Sylvia, as I say to all my interviewers and interviewees, let's start at the beginning. Where were you born and what town were you born? I was born in the Bronx. Oh, you're a Yankee? I'm a Yankee. Yeah. And we moved to Brooklyn when I was 40 years old, and I lived there until I moved out to Arizona in 1947. Okay, so you were born in the Bronx, but you grew up in Brooklyn. What kind of a family were you born into?
In other words, were you a middle class family, a struggling family? Where had your parents come from? What did your parents do? My mother came here when she was a year old. She came to this country. Her family came from Poland, but right on the border of Germany. My father came to America when he was five years old. So they were brought up in this country. Okay, so your parents grew up in this country. What did your dad do? My father was a contractor, ladies' clothes and suits. Oh, my. And he had a shop in Brooklyn right near our home. It was above a chicken market.
Oh, my. So you knew. A kosher chicken market. We used to go there and watch them kill the chickens, watch them slaughter the chickens. And pluck the chickens? And pluck the chickens, everything. Oh, my God. Tell me something. I used to watch when I was a little girl. Did the shag had hold the knife in his mouth and bend the chicken's neck back? I remember him bending the neck back. I don't remember where he held the knife. I don't think I watch that closely. But we used to go up to the shop. In fact, I was about 14 years old. I used to make out his payroll for him.
The chicken man? Oh, your father. That would be my father, the contractor. Okay. So you would say that your family situation was that you were probably middle class? Well, we were middle class except when they had a strike. And then you were poor. Then we were poor. There was a strike in the clothing industry. How many people did your dad have working for him? Oh he had about 30 or 40 people working for him Okay Was he caught up in this union business No at that time the unions weren that strong Because he was a contractor. He did contract work for the big firm. so he wasn't involved but when the big firms were on strike when there was a strike I think it may have been just about the start of the amalgamated clothing and it affected him and it would affect him because there was no work did your mother work?
no how many brothers and sisters did you have? I had a brother and a sister and a sister I was the oldest I was the oldest what kind of a Jewish home I mean was your mother were your family particularly religious particularly observant no not particularly religious I remember years ago my mother kept a kosher home and was religious and then she sort of drifted away from it I remember when she the year that she brought in glass dishes for Passover and said that was it she wasn't going to change her dishes anymore That's not so dumb, because glass is parroth. No. But as far as kosher food, we used that, which was very easy to do in Brooklyn.
What about the area you lived in? Was it a particularly Jewish area? It was a strictly Jewish area. I went to a school that I would say was 99 and 99 percent Jewish. A public school. a public school, and the holidays the school was practically closed, and there may have been just a couple of students in there. It was an entirely Jewish neighborhood. Now, I think it's mainly the Chesedum at Butter Park. Oh, yeah. So it's the Chesedum there now. What do you remember about the Jewish holidays? Like you say, the schools were almost We stayed home. We always went over to visit my parents at Jewel, as most of the children did We come in and bring flowers on Rosh Hashanah yes We bring flowers which we would order a day to ahead of time And bring them home for you And have them home and bring them over there.
And then on Himkippah we would take a walk to Coney Island, which was quite a few miles away. And kind of spend the day there. So you didn't go to shul? No, we would just go in. It was our parents who went to shul. It isn't the same as it is today where the children were brought into the shool. I really had no religious training as far as Hebrew or anything. At that time, just the boys had training. And that wasn't in the school. There was a teacher brought into the house. A tutor. Were you involved in any youth activities? Did you belong to any youth clubs?
Did they have anything like that? Nothing like they have nowadays. I belonged to several youth groups, but they were not connected with religion. For example, what kind of youth groups? Oh, we had like a social group, boys and girls. What did you do in the social group? We used to meet once a week. At the weekends, we had parties at someone's home before we dated. But nothing like they have nowadays. How old were you when you started dating? Do you remember? How old were you when your mother thought you were old enough to go out? Oh, God, I don't think she'd think I was old enough even now.
My mother was very strict with us, not my father. My mother was very strict. And he had to look over everyone that I went out with. And it didn't meet her approval. That was that. That was the end of it. That was the end of that. Okay, so you said you went to a public school. Then you said something to me before we started recording about the junior high. Tell me a little bit about that. Yes, when I finished the sixth grade, they had just started this RA classes, which were rapid advancements, and it was an experiment. They were doing three years' work in two years, but I had to go to a school.
As I said, we lived in Borough Park. I had to go to a school on 4th Avenue, which I had to take a trolley, and my mother said, and they wanted me to go into that class. My mother said no, that she wasn gonna have me travel on the trolley But the principal convinced her that she would be doing me an injustice if I didn go And that was really the two years were very very happy years this junior army I was in with they were mixed classes but we got a very broad education And we did three years' work. When I finished there, I went into the second year of high school.
All right. What high school did you go to? To Erasmus. Erasmus Hall High School. I don't know if you've heard of Erasmus. No? No. The very famous school in Brooklyn was very old school and had a very bad reputation. But she went in with a diploma and came out with a baby. Oh! But I only went there for a year because I was kind of out of step, coming in from another class, from another school, and coming into a sophomore class, whereas everyone knew everyone from a freshman. I was decidedly out of place. So I finished the year, and at that time I was taking a general course.
And I was sent to a family to put me in a business school, a very fine business school, where I went for a whole year, and I came out ready to go to work. And I did. And what work did you do when you came out? Office work. I always worked in an office. Bookkeeping accounting? Bookkeeping and typing, stenography. Okay, so how old were you when you went to work? 17? I was about 17 when I went to work. Where was your first job? It was an insurance company in downtown New York. Oh, so you really had to travel. Yeah, well, then I had to travel.
By then, my mother was used to be going on the trolley. In fact, in the summer, we used to go and she used to take a bungalow and knock away. And my last, they used to go out in May. School wasn't over until June. She allowed me to commute for the whole month. Oh, boy. You really made strides. I really made strides. So your first job was downtown New York? It was downtown New York. And how long were you at that job? Oh, I must have been there about a year, year and a half, and then I got into a way I was a clothing manufacturer in the garment industry in the 38th Street, 37th Street, and I was there for a few years.
And then I got married. Okay. And then we had the depression. No, I'm sorry, I forgot the break. Then I went to work for a string of garages downtown on the East Wells, lower New York, where I did bookkeeping. That's where I met my husband. I was just going to say, how did you meet your husband? I met him. He was a partner. They were a chain of garages, storage garages. And he was a manager. He was interested in one of the Brooklyn garages, and that's where I met him. He was interested in leasing it or rolling it? No, he was a partner in it and also managed it.
It was down on the waterfront, the Brooklyn waterfront. I don't know if you know New York, the New York Dock Company. Right, right. The foot of Montague Street. That's where he was. So you were working in the office and that's how you met him? That's how I met him, yes. Was he a lot older than you? No, seven and a half years older. So what was, okay. All right. What about when you were dating socially, the girls, the boys, what things did you used to do? Well, most of the time we just used to have parties and some in the home, and you know, dancing.
And then when we started to go out, we would go to the movies, or go to dances, do the Charleston. I could see you were a flapper, flapper, flapper. Yeah, a flapper. That was when we wore the coats wide open and the galoshes wide open and flapped along. Flapped along. Is that why they called them flappers? That's why they called them flappers. You used to wear the galoshes that had the buckles, and before you buckled them, they were wide open. Yeah, and you never close... And they flapped. Oh, that's why you had flappers. I never knew why they called them flappers. That's why. And your coat was wide open, too.
No matter how cold it was. In the dead of winter, you wore your coat wide open. And your boots open. And your boots open. Oh now I learned how Okay flappers All right so you got married Where did you live after that I lived in Brooklyn Okay I lived in Brooklyn And how many children did you I had two children, son and my daughter. My daughter first, then my son. And we moved several times. We bought two homes in Brooklyn. And then in 1947, after the war, my husband had sold his business. And I think he walked around about a year looking to invest in something and couldn't.
And my brother-in-law, my sister's husband, who was a very bad asthmatic, said he was to warn to get out of New York. And he was going back to Arizona. And with my husband, as long as he wasn't doing anything, they should take a vacation together, which they didn't. He fell in love with Arizona, and my brother-in-law was going to move out there with my sister. So we all moved out in 1947. What did you do there? Did he go into another business? He went into the real estate business, and he passed on in Tucson. Okay. What about the children? How old were they when you moved them to Arizona?
My daughter was twelve, and my son was going to be nine. Did they mind moving? Well, my daughter was a little hard for her. She was thirteen. I'm sorry, there's four years difference. She was thirteen, and it was very hard at first, but the minute we got settled, it was very hard I think the first couple of weeks. But once she got settled, we got settled, and she got in with BBG. And she had the time of her life. And my son, he was little. He had no trouble at all. He also made a lot of friends, and they had a very nice life. It was a very nice community with two sons.
Did you work at all, Sylvia, in your marriage, like, other than being a mother and a housewife? No. I was offered my own job back at the chain of garages when my daughter was a baby, and I said, no, I wouldn't leave her. But after my daughter was married, I was offered a job in the synagogue there. I was president of the system. Was this in Arizona? In Arizona And I was doing so much volunteer work They told me they wanted to give me give me a job in the Hebrew school I grabbed it and I figured it would give me an opportunity to say no to all the organizations Right And I swore I'd never go to an organization.
And I don't know how I ended up here. And you ended up here. I don't know how I ended up here. Okay, so you spent the rest, a long time of your years in Arizona. Your children met their mates and married there. Well, not my son. My son had gone back to New York. My daughter met her husband in Arizona. What did your daughter do? Did she go to college or did she...? She went to college and then she went to work. I think she only went to college for a year. She went to the University of Arizona. And she was married at 18 years old.
What was Marty doing at that time? Marty had come in. Marty was from New York. And he didn't like New York and he was just traveling through Arizona. He had come out there. And he met Maxine. And he tripped. And he tripped. And he had a job. Then he was working for Carl's Shoes, and they transferred him to Carlsbad, New Mexico. And he used to come in every weekend. And they were married, and they both went to live in Carlsbad, and they lived there for a year, and then they came back. Okay, what about in the growing up years with the children, did you do any traveling?
Did you go on? Is there anything you can remember about vacations or incidents? No. My vacation, my husband's vacation, we sent the children to camp. That one, yeah. Yes, I mean, I didn't feel that I wanted to leave them. And they would go to camp, and we would go up a couple of times during the summer and to visit them. But that was our vacation. We were able to go and see some shows in New York. I mean, we had a little more freedom than when the children were home. What about, were you ever involved or interested in any political organizations or, you know, anything like that?
I was with the Girl Scouts, I was a neighborhood chairman for several years, I was in PTA, but we had a culture group from our PTA Oh I did we went to Washington DC once We had a terrific group This was an offshoot of the PTA We called ourselves a culture group because it was when most of our children were out of the school out of the winter junior high And we felt that we still wanted to be together. We went to Washington, D.C. one time, and we made some trips to the country. That's nice. Yeah, we really had a little... Husbands and wives together, or just the women, or...?
No, just the women. There were a couple of men in the PTA, but just the wives used to go. It was very nice. It was strictly a women's group and strictly a fun group. Okay, now... And we also had, I also had a cousin's club. We did have a family circle. My father had a large family. But when he died, the family circle broke up. I don't know why. And then about a year later, we joined a cousin's club, and we got together during the day. But originally, when we were the family circle, we were about 100 people. Does the cousin's club still keep in touch?
I understand some of them do. I have lost touch with most of them. In fact, I think most of them are gone by now. I did find I do have a cousin in Memphis that I've been out of touch with, and I met somebody about two weeks ago and told me that who he's in business with, he's a travel agent. and I pulled the telephone and I haven't been able to get the address but this is my father's sister's family so it sort of fell apart that's a shame well I don't know I guess these things happen when you're not in the same well we don't have a cousins club and I come from a very large family but we seem to sort of still keep in touch and know what's going on.
Well, we did, but I think once my sister and I moved out to Arizona. Arizona? Arizona, we kind of lost touch. Okay, look. You could write so many letters and not get an answer and you get off. Right. Let's go back to Arizona. We came from Katz, Ibran, Vasa. You're here sitting with me in Dallas, Texas, and I left you in Arizona. So let's pick up. Okay, we're in Arizona. I was in Arizona. My son had gone to New York. Well, he was in California, and then he went to New York. This was, he was single at the time. Had he gone to school, to college, or just traveled?
No, he was not a student. Okay, so he went off to New York. In fact, the last year of high school, he was absent. Fifty-five days out of the time. We could never get him to go to school. Oh my goodness. How did he get excuses? But he did graduate. That was the funny part. He passed everything. But he just, he went, he had a rule. He never went to school on Monday. Monday was his day off. Okay, now I'm anxious to find out what happened to this young man. So he went to New York. He went to New York, and he worked, he's working on, and then he's here in Dallas, too.
He's in the antique business. Okay, he met someone in New York? He met someone in New York, and they came. They lived in El Paso for a while, and then they came to Dallas before we did. But you wanted to know how I got to Dallas. Yeah. How did you get into this blue chair you're sitting into now? I don't know. Well, Marty was working for someone in Tucson, and then he got a very good offer for a job in El Paso. So I said, I was working for the synagogue there at that time. I was the administrative assistant, had a very good job. But I was alone.
My son was, first he was in California, so I said I'd stay in Arizona. I was between the two of them. And I used to come to El Paso quite often. That's where Marty was transferred. And we'd cry when I got there, we'd cry when I left. Right. So when he went to New York, I said that was it, and I moved to Oak Castle. And then they came to Dallas, so I followed them to Dallas. All right, so you followed your children. I followed my children. But I told them this is the end. You're not moving anymore. All right, so how many years ago did you move to Dallas?
It'll be five years in April. Okay. How did you get involved then in the last five years? You gave up a very good job to move here Then when you moved here you decided you were going to retire No I retired I retired there about two years before I retired I was working very hard, and I worked for a pants manufacturing place, and I was office manager, and the owners were in Denver. So it was a very responsible job, and it was really too much. I decided to retire. and I figured I'd go into manpower and take something temporary and they sent me out to a nut factory based on a nut company they're now here in Safeway just to do some temporary bookkeeping, accounting and the second day I was working for the finance officer and he said how would you like to work for us the first two weeks of every month I said, that's good.
He says, you know, I close the books and get their course figures and their inventory and everything. I worked there for two years. Isn't that nice? Until Maxine and Marty said they were going to move to Dallas. Marty had been in a men's store on the border, and they closed the border, and the downtown section of El Paso just went kaput. So I just said, well, I'm not going to move with her. Okay. I've been retired ever since. So you came here retired. Retired, yes. So you obviously have been someone who has done something all your life, as I have been, and you must have looked for something to fill the hours.
Well, I felt that Maxine was working, and I had to make new friends, I didn't know here, so I finally got the courage to come to the center, and that takes a lot of courage. I know I have a woman I'm bringing tomorrow, and I want you to help me. She's lived here two years with her children, and her daughter's coming with her tomorrow. We've got to get hold of her. The first time I came in, I came in on the, oh, it was during the week, and one of the girls from the office brought me in, Lena Minstie. Oh, she was handling the lunch that time.
Uh-huh. And she introduced me around. I sat down. I watched some people playing cards. And she said, you must come Thursday when we have our brunch. So I came Thursday And I had I don know if you knew Blanche Norman No I didn Well she in Meadow Green or something in one of her homes She was a little tiny thing. At that time, she was 93 years old, but as alert as could be. And she played the best game of Bridge U.S. and Ida Richmond, who at that time was 89. and when I sat down to take that Blanch Norman on one side and Ida Richmond on the other and they were both delightful and I got home, Maxine said how was it?
I said it was pretty nice, but you know I don't belong there I said I had a 93 year old on one side and an 89 year old on the other side I said they were both very delightful people, I said that's not for me I'm only 65 And I didn't go back for months after that. But finally loneliness drove me back. Loneliness. Loneliness. Because I had to find something to do myself. I felt that I had to make friends and it's been a wonderful, wonderful experience. So once you got up the courage and came, you've never looked back. No, not at all. It takes a lot of courage and I think you'll find that there are many people here that weren't senior scares them off.
Well, I think this is true with this woman that I'm hoping to get here tomorrow. What is her name? Her son-in-law is Dr. Kastner. She lives with her children. I'm calling tonight to make sure they come, and I will point her out to you. A lovely, bright woman also. She says, I've had enough of seniors. Senior is frightening her. It frightens her, you see. It frightened you. It frightened me. Well, it was the age factor where I was wrong. I realize now I was wrong because some of these people at 90 are younger than some of them in the 60s. Absolutely. They have a different outlook on life.
Ida Richman had everything in her purse. She was prepared for any emergency. She had coffee. She had cream. She had sugar. She had saccharin. Anything they ran out of, she had in her purse. So age really is no factor. Age doesn't mean a thing. It doesn't mean a thing. So you gotten involved and now your entire life revolves around here My children say they have to make an appointment to be with them Okay now if your children moved on you would not move with them Well that what I say but I doubt if I would stay here for myself But I think that they are settled here.
I have a granddaughter here too, a married granddaughter who's in the process of getting a divorce now. Oh my. Which one? Your daughter? My daughter's daughter. Uh-huh. But they have a... Don't they have another child that's married with twins? That's the one who's getting the divorce. Oh, no. Yeah. That's their oldest daughter. They have four children. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay. What about the young man who worked in the delicatessen? That's the one she's divorcing, Jane. Uh-huh. That's a fairly new development, isn't it? They just have little babies. Well, look, they're twins of two and a half, and the little girl of five.
Oh, that's a shame. Yes. Well, that is part of life today, I think. More than anything, I don't think... It's very hard for me to understand it. But yet I understand it more than my daughter understands it. Maybe because you've been through more in life, Sylvia, or... I don't know. She can't seem to accept it. Whereas I can. I can understand a woman wanting to be independent. She's been working, Shelley, and she's just not happy with her life, and she feels that there's something more to life. Well, I guess I can see the mother's point of view, too. She sees those three pits left, and it's a difficulty.
And she sees so many women who are divorced, and she sees what they have to go through, And she feels like, well, maybe Shelly doesn't realize it, but yet you still have time for the happiness. Absolutely. Absolutely. If, Sylvie, now that we're on the subject of children and grandchildren, your daughter has four. Four children. Are they all married? No, just Shelly is the oldest. Then there's Joni, who goes to Austin. She's twenty. Right. And then there's Barry, who's just 15, and Andy, who's 10, the imp. The imp. The imp. That's all I can call him. Okay. What about your son? My son has two girls.
One is 13 and one is 12, and they lost a little girl when she was three years old. That's about five, six years ago. So you have kind of more six grandchildren. Yes, and I have three great-grandchildren. That's nice. That's nice. Well, I think they're all here, which is very nice. They're all here. My sister still lives in Tucson, and I am going there next month. I'm taking a vacation. Oh, the senior department will fall apart. Well, I try to arrange it. I'll only miss one Thursday. Oh, all right. We'll give you a Thursday. Yeah. My sister gave me a note to Marta the other day, but I haven't been there since last May, and it's time I came.
Okay. Sylvia, going back a little to your life and having your children and rearing and growing up, did you ever have any financial difficulty, you and your husband, or were you always... Yes, we did. No, we weren't always. When we moved down to Arizona, oh, about two or three years later, he was quite sick. And in the real estate business, if you don't go out, you can learn anything. Right, you work on commission. And we did have some hard times, but thank God we survived. Okay, now, if your Kinnahara grandchildren or great-grandchildren come in, because we're really excited about what we're doing, and all these tapes and all these pictures are going to be on a file that they can come in 15 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, and they can look and see Sylvia Becker and take out this tape, and they're going to sit down and hear all the mices we've been talking about.
What would you say to them, Sylvia? What would you want to tell them? You certainly seem to be an accepting person about divorce and happiness. what would you say to your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren? What would you like to say, hey, Baba says, what would you like to tell them about life or the things you like for them to do or things that you've learned? I don't know. I don't like to lead their lives. What have you learned from experience in life that you pass on to them? What would you like to say? It's a very difficult question. I know it's a difficult question.
It's a very difficult question. I always felt that I can stand on my own two feet I can see people who have to go to other people to help them solve problems I feel that I can that I can think things out for myself So you feel that one of the greatest qualities in life is to be independent? I feel that's very important. I think I've taken care of myself for the last 21 years. alright so if anything that they should develop in their life it should be independence and I'm sure that morally you don't have to give them any advice I'll tell you something I'm very proud of my grandchildren my granddaughter who's going to school in Austin is putting herself through school at 20 years old she works for Montgomery Ward she worked here for two and a half years And the minute she went down to Austin, they transferred her.
She's like her Bubba. Yeah, and she came back here for the Christmas vacation, and they have put her to work back here. So she really is independent. She's independent. She paid her way through this year. She went a year to Richland College, and she's in her second year. And she's paid for it. Adore them and everything. So the most important thing that you would like to tell them, or that you've told them? Is to be independent. To be independent. If you're independent, you can make your way in life. I have had one argument with my son-in-law over the years. Only one? Well, it's a continuing one.
How many years have they been married? Twenty-five. Okay. No, I'm sorry. Twenty... It'll be twenty-seven years. All right, so one argument. This must be a good one. It's lasted 27 years long. Well, it's a quiet one. That's all right. Why I live alone, why I don't live with them. Oh, but you're very clever. You would never live with them. No. And I said, as long as I can, I'm going to live by myself. Absolutely. And he's been fighting with me for years for that. Well... He moved me from Tucson. Uh-huh. He came in and hired a truck and moved me. And I was still going back for another month to finish up my job at the synagogue.
But I came in on my vacation and he fixed up my bedroom and everything He says see here it all fixed up You don have to look for an apartment I said Marty I still looking for an apartment I not going to live with it He says, look how everything fits in here beautifully. Your other furniture I put in the garage, but your bedroom is all set for you. He moved down to the other furniture, moved in my furniture. But this is a continuing idea. Well, it's nice to know that you're wanted, because I have seen people in this senior group who come to me and say, find me a wife because my son says I should go back to New York or my son says there are children who don't extend that love and warmth and this is a son-in-law not a son so well I think it's because you're a special person he knows you're not going to be a leech around there next that you are independent I told him he says you're paying so much for rent this is before I moved into Midbar he says so I said well the only thing I would do the only way would move in is if I have a little separate apartment.
Next thing I know he says, look, we'll convert the garage. We'll do this and we'll do that and put in anything you want. That's our only argument. But I believe in being independent. As long as I can. I agree with you. As long as I can take care of myself. Absolutely. That's important. Okay, so that is the important method that you would like your grandchildren to do. That's the most important thing. And there's one thing, I mean, about the children. They're all nice. We don't get any of this running around. You know, when you hear of drugs and things, we don't hear about that in our family.
Barry is very much interested in NCSY. That's the 15-year-old. He just came back. They had a convention in Charleston, and he knew that he was going for a week. and he's very much interested in that. He likes to go to services Saturday morning at Tiferet. He goes to their high school class at Tiferet. And the little one, the imp, goes to Akiva. Do you think when he comes in 30 years now and turns on the tape, he says, yeah, that's right, Bubba did call me an imp. He knows, I always call him an imp. Well, listen, you should have many more years of nothing to enjoy.
My son children unfortunately they don observe anything And it really My son used to be very religious but they don And I think I attribute it a lot to the loss of this child. She was a mongoloid child. I think that's true, that sometimes you lose complete faith when you've been so hurt. and they were told to expect the worst, but you know, I guess you always hold out hope that the doctors will be wrong. I mean, the girls have no, the two girls are two lovely girls. They have no Jewish backgrounds at all. and both my son and his wife were brought up in Jewish holidays then do you share the holidays like when you get together with Marty and your daughter does your son and his wife show you so that they do have some feelings that's all but at home they don't love it well but at least they get a touch of the holidays and the flavor the holidays are always spent together in fact we all each one has a holiday in their morning that's nice Yes, and Passover is always by Maxine, and Russia's shown, and Shelley has taken over the last few years.
So that's what we do. Well, that's good. In the holidays. Okay, Sylvia, we're going to close our tape now. I thought I talked enough. No, you didn't, but I'm looking here, you brought me your little autograph book. Maybe we should look through here, and can you find in this autograph book maybe an old boyfriend or somebody and we'll read one or two of them I really think that that is beautiful and I wish I had done the same thing and kept my autograph book this autograph book was there were many good wishes here may the long lane of life be strewn with roses for you isn't that nice that's Sylvia okay here's Yetta read that when you are married and your husband is crossed give him a paper and say here is your divorce.
Oh! Give them a paper. But there used to be another one then say I'm the boss to pick up a broom. This is beautiful. This was written June 22nd 1923. Dear Sylvia, true friends are like diamonds precious and rare. False friends are like autumn leaves found everywhere. Your loving clouds Helen Suglestad, 1923. That is beautiful. That really is something. There was something that I... All right. All right, here's one from the autograph book. When twilight drops his turtine and pins it with a star, remember you had a classmate, though she traveled, wandered, was forever, was been... Tell me something. Do you know where any of the people in this book are today?
Isn't that something? And now you're bugging me. I wonder where my autograph book is. Not only that, but these were people who were not, they were school friends. Because they did not live in the area where I lived, you see. This was from your junior high days? This was from the junior high. that is really a rare and beautiful treasure that you will keep forever he's a teacher's time with a friend of my mother's in 1923 you graduated holy gee okay I have enjoyed very much this morning sharing some of your past with you and here the last thing we going to read it was entitled June 20th 1923 of all sad words of tongue or pen the saddest of all is it might have been therefore there's a Yiddish expression, never put off for tomorrow what you can do today, and you have done that very same thing with your life.
You have never put off, you have been independent, you have provided, and you really are a shining example to all the seniors that are here. And I've enjoyed the morning with you. I've enjoyed it with you immensely. I want you to keep... I pulled. You pulled. Ah, I pulled. Good. Listen, you just keep on leading and keep on inspiring the seniors. We're trying. We're trying to give them some of the other things that they would like. Absolutely. You're trying to bring a lot of life into the program, and I think it's marvelous, and I can hardly wait. Okay. Sylvia, thanks. Okay.